Equinor agrees to acquire 87.71% stake in Pennsylvania’s 1,483 MW Lackawanna gas power plant for $940 million
Norwegian energy company Equinor ASA announced Monday it’s buying an 87.71 percent stake in the Lackawanna Energy Center — a 1,483-megawatt combined-cycle gas turbine plant in Pennsylvania — for $940 million. The seller is Global Infrastructure Partners. The remaining shares stay with Invenergy, the Chicago-based firm that developed the plant and brought it online in January 2019.
The price could be reduced at closing, Equinor said, though it didn’t share a timeline for when that might happen.
Deal terms and parties involved
Under the agreement, Equinor picks up 87.71 percent of the Class A shares in Lackawanna Energy Center from Global Infrastructure Partners. The $940 million figure may come down at closing, but Equinor hasn’t said what conditions could trigger that reduction or by how much.
PJM demand is expected to keep rising, which improves Lackawanna’s long-term outlook and supports stronger capacity prices for efficient baseload plants.
Invenergy AMPCI Thermal Power LLC holds the remaining Class A shares plus 100 percent of the Class B shares — meaning Invenergy keeps a minority equity stake alongside its operational role.
Invenergy built Lackawanna and has run it since January 2019. Despite the ownership shift, the Chicago firm will keep managing and operating the plant, with day-to-day control staying in the hands of the team that’s been there from the start.
Why Equinor is acquiring Lackawanna
Location and scale are the most obvious draws. Lackawanna ranks among the largest and most efficient gas-fired power plants in the PJM power market — the biggest wholesale electricity market in the U.S., serving nearly 70 million consumers across 13 states.
The plant’s proximity to Equinor’s existing Appalachian Basin gas assets adds a layer of strategic logic. That non-operated position delivers more than 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day into the northeastern U.S. Sitting a gas-fired plant right next to your gas supply is a genuine commercial advantage, not just a geographic coincidence.
Equinor also pointed to the plant’s “reliable access to abundant, competitively priced natural gas” as a key strength. For a combined-cycle plant, fuel cost and supply reliability are what drive profitability — and Lackawanna looks solid on both counts.
Beyond the asset itself, Equinor and Invenergy plan to explore further collaboration, leveraging Invenergy’s operating capabilities and established PJM presence in ways that could grow into something well beyond a standard landlord-operator arrangement. PJM demand is expected to keep rising, which improves Lackawanna’s long-term outlook and supports stronger capacity prices for efficient baseload plants.
Regulatory status and transaction timeline
The deal still needs regulatory approvals before it closes. Equinor didn’t identify which agencies will review it or when it expects to wrap things up. No details were shared on antitrust review or Federal Energy Regulatory Commission processes — standard hurdles for U.S. power plant acquisitions of this size — and the company kept its public statements brief on that front.
One thing that could ease the path is the deal structure itself. Because Invenergy retains its operational role and a continuing equity stake, this isn’t a clean change of control. That continuity might reduce friction during the review process, though how much weight regulators give it remains to be seen.
Context: Equinor’s broader electricity and gas strategy
This acquisition fits into a broader push by Equinor to grow its power generation business. The company plans to put roughly 10 percent of its $11–13 billion annual capital expenditure for 2028–30 into its electricity segment — a meaningful slice of a large budget.
Equinor’s target is to grow power generation fourfold, reaching more than 20 terawatt-hours by 2030, primarily through projects already underway. In the first half of 2026, the company’s net power generation totaled 2.52 TWh, including 1.58 TWh from renewables. That baseline makes 20 TWh ambitious, though not unreachable if planned assets come online on schedule.
The Appalachian Basin is already one of Equinor’s most important producing assets globally. In 2025, it contributed 305,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to the company’s equity production, ranking second only to Norway’s Johan Sverdrup field among Equinor’s top producers. Lackawanna deepens the company’s footprint in a region where it already operates at significant scale — and where it clearly intends to do more.
Equinor has described its electricity growth strategy as focused on “selected markets and segments, where integration with a broader energy offering is achievable.” Lackawanna fits that framing cleanly: a large gas plant fed by gas assets Equinor already controls, inside a power market the company is now more deeply embedded in than it was last week.
Key takeaways
Here’s what’s been announced: Equinor is paying $940 million for an 87.71 percent stake in a 1,483-megawatt combined-cycle gas plant in Pennsylvania, buying from Global Infrastructure Partners. Invenergy keeps the remaining shares and will continue running the facility. The deal needs regulatory approvals, and no closing date has been set. The plant operates in PJM — the largest U.S. wholesale power market — and sits near Equinor’s substantial Appalachian Basin gas production. The acquisition moves Equinor closer to its goal of quadrupling power generation to over 20 TWh by 2030.
Carlos is an engineer with strong expertise in technical and industrial topics. He previously worked at international companies such as Siemens and is multilingual.
